Mithras
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Slinging beach pebbles off the Yorkshire coast
Posts: 94
East Yorkshire, England
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How about this use of the sling as an espionage tool in Appian's The Foreign Wars, recounting Rome's invasion of Greece (and here, the city of Athens) under Sulla:
[31] Two Athenian slaves in the Pirĉus -- either because they favored the Romans or were looking out for their own safety in an emergency -- wrote down everything that took place there, enclosed their writing in leaden balls, and threw them over to the Romans with slings. As this was done continually it came to the knowledge of Sulla, who gave his attention to the missives and found one which said, "To-morrow the infantry will make a sally in front upon your workers, and the cavalry will attack the Roman army on both flanks." Sulla placed an adequate force in ambush and when the enemy dashed out with the thought that their movement would completely surprise him he gave them a greater surprise with his concealed force, killing many and driving the rest into the sea. This was the end of that enterprise.
Is that cool - or what??
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